


white roses

by autumntea



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Language of Flowers, M/M, Post-L's Death, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 17:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12687312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumntea/pseuds/autumntea
Summary: The flowers begin to wilt just hours after L and Watari die.





	white roses

The flowers begin to wilt just hours after L and Watari die.

 

It’s just Matsuda in the room when Light comes in, his eyes puffy and tear stained. Light isn’t particularly surprised; the man had barely been able to keep himself together as they carried L and Watari’s bodies to a cold room and then double and triple checked the base and fortifying everything, just in case; even if Light knew everything was fine (off plan, but finally, finally progressing). Matsuda has a notepad in one hand, a pen in the other, and a book of flowers to the side of him. L’s body is uncovered, the white sheet more than halfway draped over the floor and his usual white shirt pulled up just above his heart. Somehow his skin is paler in death than it already was in life. 

 

Soon, the flowers will expel from the bodies, petals wilting and vines slipping through the skin, limp and dead. Over the years, it’s become tradition, to list all the various flowers and herbs that grew from the bodies and to plant them in the ground at their grave sites. It was a sign of respect for those dearly departed that deserved respect. Light doubts that L would even want them planted. L didn’t even like his flowers, or so he had claimed.

 

Perhaps in part because they were surprisingly colorful, whereas the man tried to be as monotone as he possibly could. Had tried. Had. Light has to remind himself, with a pounding heart, that L was _dead_. He had finally won, after nearly an entire year of the nonstop intellectual battle. No one would even be considered a challenge to him anymore; the battle was won and the wilting flowers were proof of Light’s divine victory.

 

Light can’t help but know all of L’s flowers by heart, though. The time they had spent together, both at the university and handcuffed to one another, had ensured this.

 

He was not ignorant as to just how odd it was that they shared multiple flowers. That it was odd that most, if not all, of the flowers, began to bloom after he met L for the first time.

 

Light remembers when the white roses had begun to grow in; their thorns had pierced his arms before the roses had even finished blooming, tangled with sage and hollyhock. Now, he can see the same roses that wrap around L’s chest and arms begin to wilt; yellowing when they had once been a brilliant bright white. There are amaryllis and purple columbine, coltsfoot,  red Japanese camellias, and gaudy yellow chrysanthemums that Light has been trying to ignore in particular for months now.

 

There are, of course, plants that L has that Light does not; rudbeckia sprout from his throat, thyme from his chest, galega tangled with the roses, out of place passion flower, and almost too many to name, along with the buds that had never gotten to bloom before Rem had made the ultimate sacrifice. Light had spent sleepless nights having to listen to L attempt the dissect just what Light’s flowers meant that he had decided to retaliate and analyze L right back; the fight that had followed after the first time hadn't been pretty. He could almost hear L now, talking about how the hyssop, different colored geraniums, and the - perhaps incriminating -bright red rhododendron, sunny tansy, and small, nearly unnoticeable deadly sprouts of hemlock that grew from his heart painted quite the interesting picture of Light for L.

 

But he’s won now, he’ll never have to sit through another argument like that again. He’ll never have to deal with L on his tail again, insisting that he was Kira and always, always being half a step behind Light.  

 

He doesn’t realize that he’s somewhat… disappointed by this for another few weeks, after the funeral and after bright zinnias have bloomed over his back, tangled together with the geraniums and hemlock. By the beginning of the year, when Light has begun to make real progress with the Death Note once again, the white roses wilt and asphodel follows.

 

He doesn’t feel much of anything anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> despite the fact that I've been into Death Note for like eight years i've never actually written a DN fic before lmao... but then I suddenly got really into lawlight this year lol!!  
> This is set in an AU where like humans are like plant-like and grow plants and herbs and stuff from their skin i just like the idea lol 
> 
> Please lemme know what you thought! Also available on tumblr: http://yuuukanda.tumblr.com/post/167361025311/white-roses
> 
> flower meanings:  
> Light and L’s:
> 
> White roses: I am worthy of you.  
> Amaryllis: pride, splendid beauty  
> Purple columbine: Resolve to win  
> Coltsfoot: Justice shall be done  
> Red Japanese camellias (or camellia japonica): unpretending excellent; “my destiny is in your hands.”  
> Yellow Chrysanthemums: slighted love  
> L:
> 
> Rudbeckia (or black-eyed susan’s): justice  
> Thyme: courage  
> Galega: reason  
> Passion flowers: belief; faith  
> Light’s:
> 
> Hyssop: sacrifice  
> Different types of Geraniums: Ingenuity, envy, melancholy, disappointed expectation, unexpected meeting, true friendship.  
> Rhododendron: danger  
> Tansy: resistance/hostile thoughts  
> Hemlock: You will be my death.  
> Asphodel: My regrets follow you to the grave.  
> Zinna: Thoughts of absent friends.


End file.
